Bandsaw Mill Procedures
- Industrial scale vertical and horizontal bandsaw mills differ in design and operation. Vertical bandsaw mills typically feature a carriage that runs on a track to carry the log progressively closer to the blade for each cut. In a horizontal bandsaw mill, the log lies on the ground and the saw, itself, moves.
- Plainsawing is the simplest method of producing lumber with a bandsaw mill. This method involves cutting the bark from the outside of a log and progressively sawing boards from the surface; it produces wider boards with a different grain pattern to those produced by quartersawing.
- Quartersawing is a method of sawing lumber that aims for the growth rings to align as close to perpendicular to the face of the board as possible; logs are sawn directly in half and each half is sawn into boards. This produces narrower boards, but they are less susceptible to warping or cupping as they dry.